To Hell in a Handbasket We Go
by child of a fallen god
Summary: Is everything as it seems? Who can possibly save everyone now that Lilith has returned? Hermione? Well, I hope so.
1. Default Chapter

**DISCLAIMER**: I don't own the Characters of Harry Potter ( © JKR ). I just borrow them and play a bit...

**A/N**: First and Foremost, this Fic is dedicated to Lord Elrond of Hogwarts, for her wonderfully enlightening reviews, and her equally wonderful writing skills. Now, I know I said I didn't think I'd be doing a Double Trouble sequel, but I put my heart and soul into the Fic, so I couldn't just let my characters rest. So here it is. The sequel to Double Trouble...

**_TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET WE GO_**

**_Chapter One_**

**__**

Taking a sip of the chamomile tea laced with a generous portion of kava, Hermione Granger rolled her shoulders, making a face as sore muscles protested the raw movement. _Rohan's extensive physical regime should be outlawed_, she thought viciously, biting her lower lip to keep herself from whimpering at the onslaught of pain.

Leaning against the doorway, she stared out over the rolling green hills surrounding Rohan's and Caralynn's gorgeous estate, given to them by Albus Dumbledore as a Wedding Gift.

"Hermione?"

Turning, Hermione smiled at Caralynn, glancing pointedly at her protruding tummy. "How are the triplets?"

Caralynn made a disgusted face. "They're practicing gymnastics, I believe." The skin on her stomach rippled, proving her statement true as one of the triplets performed a series of cartwheels and somersaults.

"You'll have your hands full." Hermione giggled, "What with Rohan and those three, it'll be like a nursery in here in no time."

"You're just saying that because you're jealous of me." Rohan answered her, coming up behind Caralynn and wrapping his arms about his wife.

"Oh yes, Rohan." Hermione rolled her eyes. "I am just so jealous of you I can't stand it." Her dry reply caused the older two to chuckle as she arched her back. "I don't understand why physical fitness is on the agenda. What has that to do with me controlling my Magick?"

Caralynn grinned at the rebellious eighteen-year-old. "It really has nothing to do with your Magick, except for giving you the focus you'll need."

"I don't understand, I've already learned how to focus, isn't that what we've spent the last year on?"

"Yes, but you need to be able to physically protect yourself, even as you mentally distance yourself from your situation to use the Magick." Rohan responded, sitting down on a wicker lounge, pulling Caralynn into his lap and massaging her lower back with care.

"Mmmm, that's heavenly." Caralynn purred, a hand resting on her swelled stomach, her eyes drifting closed. "And he's right, Hermione. You know, as well as I do, that there's been disturbances in the fabric of Magick that surround us. The Void has been opened, and the rift is ever widening." She opened her eyes, locking them with Hermione's cinnamon. "Ron and Harry are coming to visit."

Hermione grinned. She hadn't seen her friends in over a year. They had all been whisked away before seventh year started to begin intensive training with each of their newfound strengths.

It wasn't long after Harry defeated Voldemort that someone had managed to rip away the lining of Magick that protected the Staff of Merlin, which stood at the head of the Emerald Isle, showing the road that led into the deep abyss of the ocean, down to what might be the lost continent of Atlantis, or the lost isle of Tir Na Nog.

Now, with the Staff gone missing, more and more different religious and magical Artifacts had gone missing... including the Shroud of Turin, the Lance of Longinus, the Golden Arches of Shangri-La, Morgan Le Fay's Book of Shadows and Light.

It had been decided that the Golden Trio would be trained separately and taught to work as a unit, for they were the only ones possessing the skills it would require to find the perpetrator and recover the stolen items.

Hermione sighed softly. They had each been allowed to visit their family, significant others, and other friends during the year they were gone, but never allowed to see each other, by order of Albus Dumbledore. She still didn't understand why. Weren't they always better as a team?

"Here, Hermione, you have to give these to them." Rohan held out three signet rings. "The purple one is yours." She stared at them. All three set in silver, one amethyst, one jade, and one a deep dark onyx. Each was etched with something. On Harry's was a small pentagram, on hers was the runic symbol for protection, and on Ron's was a spitting cobra. She blinked.

"What are they for?" She slid hers onto her finger, shivering as a strange tingling feeling prickled all the hairs on her body.

"They are amulets. You each have been given an amulet to give to your friends. You will be giving the signet rings, Harry will be giving the necklaces, and Ron, the charm bracelets."

"Why?" She asked softly, she didn't want to sound uneducated, or uncouth, but she just didn't understand.

"You'll understand when you give them." Rohan replied rather cryptically.

"When will they be here?" She couldn't keep the excitement contained in her voice.

"Actually, they will be arriving in less than two hours." Caralynn replied, unperturbed.

"What?!"

XXX

Laying his head against the glass, Harry Potter stared out of the train window as the landscape surrounding him passed at a surreal speed. He gently fingered the two amulets he held in his hand, a feeling of nervous excitement knotting his stomach.

He allowed his emerald eyes to drift closed for a moment as he smiled broadly. He was finally going to get to see Ron and Hermione again. The year they had been apart had passed painfully slow for him. Especially since he was in the care of none other than Professor Severus Snape. While they hadn't gotten along famously, Harry had developed a grudging sort of respect for the Potions Master, but that could be only because they had to live in close quarters without killing, maiming, or seriously injuring one another.

The fact that he had survived the year in relatively decent health had surprised him immensely. He knew for a fact he had been getting on Snape's last nerve, Tonks had had to step in between them a few times in the last week.

_Enough about that_. He shook his head. _You're going to get to see Ron and Hermione again!_

The pure excitement of the thought overwhelmed him, and he glanced down at the amulets he had been given to give the two. He was already wearing his, a jade pentagram hung about his throat on black cording.

Hermione's was made of amethyst, shining dimly in the light, and was simply the runic symbol for protection. Ron's, on the other hand, was a deep onyx stone etched with a rather vicious looking cobra. Dumbledore had told him it had come straight from Africa, after steeping a bit in the voodoo and black witchcraft, then laid in cobra's poison for a fortnight.

He wondered how much his friends had really changed in the year, and suddenly, he felt ill. He didn't want them to change, he wanted them just as he remembered them.

XXX

Shouldering his pack, Ron Weasley stepped off the platform, tucking an errant lock of longish red hair behind one of his ears. He stared about him, admiring the rugged beauty of nature.

He was leaner than he was when he had left, his arms scarred and his hands roughened by pure physical labor. He was dark, his cerulean blue eyes shining out of his tanned face as he glanced about, his expression carefully neutral.

He had spent his year with Liberty Houseman, the foremost expert on snakes in all the Wizarding World. She was parselmouth as well, and was quite a taskmaster when it came to caring for her precious serpents. Not that he minded in the least. They were entertaining.

Nagini wound herself about his throat, her tail caressing his cheek as he jumped from the second part of the platform to land in a crouch on the ground. Africa had been interesting, to say the least. Libby lived with a tribe of Africans right in the bush, and he had learned a bit more of what exactly he was.

"What do you think, Mother?"

Nagini hissed in pleasure. "It's quite beautiful." Lifting her head, she flicked her forked tongue out to taste the air. "Pure and unadulterated, and pleasantly warm, not boiling hot." The snake had had to take cover for the hottest part of the days in Africa.

"As I thought." Ron allowed his eyes to linger on a beautiful willow tree, smiling. "I've so missed this."

"As have I."

The voice caused Ron to jerk about, a broad smile plastered across his face. "Harry!" He dropped his pack, rushing to embrace his friend, crushing him in a powerful hug. "Oh Gods, have I missed you so!"

"Calm down." Harry wheezed, laughing. "Lemme go!"

Ron dropped him, stepping back to survey his shorter buddy. "You have changed." He let out a low whistle of approval as his eyes took in the man before him. Harry laughed, flexing his newfound muscles. He was only shorter than Ron by an inch, and definitely broader in the shoulder. His unruly dark hair was swept away from his face and tied back in a tail. Ron smiled.

"So, how have you been?"

"Alright, and you?"

"Damned infernal...." Both boys whirled about as they spotted the last third of the trio, trudging up the hill to them, tripping over her shoes.

"Hermione!" Both of them bellowed, rushing down the hill to pounce on their friend, bags laying forgotten up at the platform as they slid, slipped, and rolled all the way to the foot of the hill.

Enveloped in a two-fold bear hug, Hermione could do naught but cooperate and hug right back, giggling and laughing. "I've missed you two!"

Their words were lost in a rush of emotion as they settled back, just observing each other for the moment.

"Wow." Hermione was the first to speak after several minutes of silence stretched between them.

"You can say that again." Harry intoned.

"Wow."

"Cheeky." Harry rolled his eyes, laying back to look up at the cloudless blue sky. "Can you believe it? It's been a whole year."

"No, actually it's been a year, three months, one day, twelve hours, and exactly two minutes, forty five seconds...forty six...forty seven..."

"Still ever the Know-it-all, eh Harry?" Ron laughed, elbowing his dumbfounded friend.

"Yes, she is. I think she deserves a tickling, what about you, Ron?"

"Oh, yes, I do. Good suggestion, by the way."

"Thank you..."

"Don't you dare..." Hermione scooted back, staring at both boys in a mixture of horror and hilarity. "I mean it...I'll...I'll..."

"What? Laugh us to death?"

XXX

"Oh, gods, Caralynn, that was fantastic."

"Thank you, Ron." Caralynn flushed a light pink, pleased with herself. "It was nothing, really."

"You took time to cook for us, that isn't nothing." Ron replied seriously, remembering back to when he'd had to Kill his own food.

"Now, if you are all finished..." Rohan stood, "I believe it is time we talked of the matters at hand. Please bring your amulets with you, as you will be exchanging them shortly."

All three rose, smiling their thanks at Caralynn and following Rohan to the study.

"So, what're we really here for? I'm sure they didn't train us for a year just to reunite us without purpose." Harry lounged against the doorway, perusing the shelves of the study with his eyes, carefully keeping his awareness broadened for any change in the atmosphere.

Rohan bristled slightly, and Harry smiled, feeling the shift of power. "I would have thought that would be painfully obvious, Mister Potter."

"Please, call me Harry." Harry intoned, laughing.

"Harry then. Anyway, as you well know, more and more of the Artifacts are disappearing, even as the rift grows wider. We need to find out who is doing this."

"And why do you require us?" Ron asked this time, scratching the underneath of Nagini's chin.

"Because...you know very well why!"

"Rohan." Hermione sighed. "Boys, stop toying with him, please. Rohan, look, we've been separated for a year, no form of contact at all between the three of us. Of course we're not going to be happy about it. Look, we know we've been trained to stop whoever is doing this, but would it not have been simpler to just gather together a band of Aurors and do the job up properly?"

"Excellent suggestion Miss Granger." All three stiffened in their seat as Dumbledore idled into the room. "But, as you know, none of our Aurors are equipped to be handling Void magicks, as we were made painfully aware when Voldemort was killed. Now, I have some interesting news that we didn't tell you. Lucius Malfoy has been resurrected."

"What?!" All three sat aghast.

"He had his loyal followers among the ranks of the Deatheaters, and it is my belief that Narcissa Malfoy began studying Void Magick as a way to bring her dead husband back to life. It would explain why she had the Shroud of Turin taken, because of the healing properties still left in it."

"That makes no sense." Hermione replied.

"Ah, but it does, Miss Granger. You see, Lucius Malfoy, resurrected, is bad news for anyone, but especially bad news for yourself, since he most undoubtedly remembers his death. I believe he is gathering all the objects and feeding them to the Void so he can command the sort of power that was denied him when he served Voldemort."

"What has this to do with us?" Ron pondered aloud.

"Draco and Melody are missing. They were taken from their home last night, while they were sleeping. I do not believe them to be harmed, Lucius is an evil bastard." An intake of breath from the trio when Dumbledore cursed, "But he would not harm his own flesh and blood, just because he does not wish to mar the beauty of the Malfoy family."

Hermione bit her lower lip. "I can't believe this! We're gone for a year and the whole world goes to hell in a handbasket!"

* * *

**A/N**: So, there's the first chapter. Please review, it would be greatly appreciated. More to come about Lucius, Draco, Melody, and of course, the Quads!

Love,

Me


	2. The Sins of the Father

**DISCLAIMER**: _See chapter one for general disclaimer..._

**REVIEWS**: _A big thankies to all you that actually read this horrible taste in fantasy masquerading as a fic. And a special thanks to Nerwen Faelvirin, Saralisse, Romantic Shade of Blue, Triniroo, and memommy27. Your reviews were great guys!_

_Lord Elrond of Hogwarts: Academic Olympics?! I hope you did well, I could never participate in something like that. I don't have the brain power to compete against people, it takes all my brainpower to get out of the bed in the morning. Thanks for reviewing. (gives you a Draco sammich)_

A/N: So, here's the latest addition to the saga. Dun dun dun.

TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET WE GO

**_CHAPTER TWO_**

_The sins of the Father..._

_**"Father of mine, tell me,  
Where have you been?  
I just closed my eyes and  
My whole world disappeared.  
Father of mine, take me back to the day,  
Back when I was your golden boy,  
Before you went away..."**_ – **_Father of Mine, Everclear_**

The stench of sweat, urine, unwashed bodies, and molding hay caused him to gag, his head throbbing in time with his pounding heart. Nausea swept over him in waves of shaking hurt, his body curling in on itself to preserve whatever warmth was left in his frozen limbs. He licked his lips, his swollen tongue swiping across the cracked and broken skin of his lips, trying to drag whatever moisture he could from them.

He couldn't remember how long he'd been here, but the deafening silence was starting to terrify him. He felt oppressed in the darkness, and he shifted his body. He was so terribly cold, so cold. Perhaps he should just let himself become consumed by the cold, give into whatever they wanted of him.

And then a scream ripped through the silence. The high-pitched scream of a child in pain. A girl child, and young at that...

The thought caused him to bolt upright, half-crouched as blind panic consumed him. The scream echoed in the darkness, dying as quickly as it had begun. Silenced.

"Melody!" His voice was hoarse from disuse, but it still rang out loudly in the darkness, bouncing off the wall of his cells, causing him to flinch reflexively. "Melody! Gods, Melody, Mel..." He slumped to his knees, wrapping his arm about his body, shaking with suppressed sobs. If they hurt her...

"Oh, stop your blubbering."

The voice whipped across his body as if he had been struck. Shaking himself from his stupor, he turned to the bright light that now illuminated the inside of his cell, and the light footsteps that crossed the floor made him stiffen with resolve. "Tell me, now, where is my sister." When the voice didn't answer him, he lunged from where he was in the direction he thought the speaker might have been standing.

He hit nothing but a wall, his shoulder contacting the brick with a sickening crunch, and a small wail on his part.

"Please, you don't think I'd hurt my own baby girl, do you?"

The voice was familiar in its icy condescension, and he turned slowly, pressing his back against the wall. A lank lock of white hair fell over one fevered gray eye as he regarded the light solemnly. He could just barely make out her figure, but that's all he needed to recognize her. "Mother." The word held all the hatred and pain he had buried deep in his soul. "What have you done with her?"

"She is safe...for now. She sleeps." Narcissa Malfoy detached herself from the light of the hall, stepping gingerly into the cell, her pointed nose wrinkling with disgust. "See what you get when you consort with those lower than your own station, Draco love? Act like a Mudblood, get treated like a Mudblood." She took out a handkerchief, pressing it across her nose and mouth delicately, regarding her son with loathing mixed with suppressed hatred. "You sprang directly from my loins, how COULD you? Blood Traitor."

The words rang in Draco's head, clearing out the fuzziness of pain, and steeling him, infusing him with an anger that surpassed anything he had ever known. "Do NOT speak of her like that! She is more woman than you could possibly ever hope to be." His upper lip curled in the sneer he had worked years to perfect, and the effect must have been rather interesting indeed, by the way Narcissa took an involuntary step back.

"Whatever, boy. Anyway, your father wishes a word with you."

Father? "As in the dead, worm meat, buried, stabbed by a fellow Death Eater and left to rot Lucius Malfoy?" He gave a short bark of laughter, "You—you have stooped to a new low, Mother, if you think I am going to believe that."

"And why wouldn't you?"

Whatever witty and slicing retort Draco had been preparing, died on his lips as the voice washed over him. Lifting his eyes, he shrank back from the man in front of him. "Oh, Gods."

"I do believe you have made him speechless, beloved." Narcissa rested her hand on her dead husband's shoulder.

Lucius flinched away from her tactile contact, causing her face to fall noticeably, and she stepped back in the shadows, quite obviously dismissed. "Son, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood. You have betrayed me." His face was stony and impassive as he stepped further into the cell, and Draco shrank further away from him. "Why? Blood is all there is in a world of lies and deceit. Did I never treat you right? Was I not the father you wanted? Would you have rathered Black..." Here his voice took on an icy edge. "As the father you loved so dear?"

Draco lifted his eyes to meet that of his father's, and gasped. No emotion shone in the dead eyes, flat with a sort of horrified pain. When his father had been alive, his eyes were the only thing on him that ever showed emotion that wasn't carefully schooled. There, he seen it...a flicker of...terror? And as suddenly as it was there, it was gone. "Whoever...whatever you are...you are NOT my father!" Draco lurched to his feet, ignoring the pain that lanced through him. "Wh-what are you!? Tell me, speak or I will send you back to the seventh level of hell that you crawled up from!"

Lucius turned to Narcissa and the faceless guard. "Leave us, we have much to discuss."

Narcissa stood for a moment, a sort of confused look twisting her classically refined features into something more pitiful. But she turned, leaving and shutting the cell door.

"I am your father." Lucius stated after he was sure they were gone.

"No, you're not." Draco glared at the imposter. "I don't know what you hope to accomplish by masquerading about as the dead Malfoy Prince, but let me assure you...Father..." He stressed the word, leaving it to hang in the air between them for a moment, "I will not be a pawn in your game, and neither will Melody. Now, tell me, who...or rather...what are you?"

Lucius laughed, a low, cruel sound that sent shivers up Draco's spine. "Little boy, you need not meddle in things you know nothing of. This is not a game that you can hope to win. You will never be nothing more than a pawn."

"Tell me." Draco hissed. "Who are you? And why are you emulating the man that WAS my father?!"

"Do you really wish to know? Do you really want to know exactly who your father was, and what he'd do to ensure that he would never die, not fully? Do you really, really want to go there?!" Lucius grabbed Draco's face, forcing him to look up into his eyes.

Draco jerked back, trying to release himself from the man's harsh grip, pain lancing through his head.

"Look at me!" Lucius demanded, tightening his grip, catching Draco's gaze with his.

* * *

_Darkness swallowed him whole, his whole body slumping. Something moved in the darkness, something so twisted by greed and hatred that it was unrecognizable. It was terrified, but that was all Draco could really tell, as it skulked closer to him._

_Trying to back away, Draco felt himself held fast, as the thing continued near him, reaching out a withered, blackened hand to caress his face, still keeping it's own face hidden in shadow and averted from him._

_"Who are you?" He received no answer to his whispered question, only an involuntary shudder from the creature. He turned his attention to the shining light that held him. "What is it?"_

_The light just thrummed with annoyance, a tendril snaking out to lash across the creature's back, causing the creature to jump and whimper in pain._

_**Look at him**. The voice whipped through his skull, and he winced. It was the cold voice of the Lucius imposter, deep and sinister. **Look at him now, behold your son, behold the man you could have known, behold what you gave away when you gave me your soul. Lucius, look upon the life you could have had had you not felt the drawing powers of the Void, and had you avoided the draw of darkness and the sweet whisperings of greed.**_

_Draco tried to struggle out the grip of whatever held him, but it was futile. The thing nodded softly, lifting its face. A lance of light spilled across the blackened and twisted features, lighting the deadened eyes in its face. Gray eyes, the same gray eyes that he possessed. Gray eyes that shone with hunger, pain, and regret. Gray eyes that drunk in the sight of him like a man dying of a great thirst. Gray eyes that, after a moment, slid to the side, shame coloring the depths of them._

_"F-father?" Draco could only stutter, feeling ill._

_The thing slowly slid back into the darkness, lifting its eyes to glance back at his face, as if memorizing him. **Draco...** the mind voice was distant, a piping whisper that was more air than anything else. It held the tinge of regret, the pain of repentance._

_The light that held him reached out a tendril, wrapping itself about the Dark Creature, even as the Creature struggled and writhed against its bonds, screaming in pain._

_"Leave him alone!" Draco yelled, struggling against his own bonds, longing to help the pitiful creature, "Let him go!"_

**_See Draco, what happens to men who succumb to the seductiveness of the Dark, the Void, watch closely Draco, my boy._**

_"I AM NOT YOUR BOY!" Draco thundered, clenching his fists. "Let him go! Let him...leave him alone!"_

_The Creature, now within a few steps of its doom just stopped fighting. With a last wrench, it jerked its eyes back to Draco, holding his gaze._

**_Draco...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...I...love...you..._**

_"FATHER! No! No, father, please!" Draco screamed, heedless of what he was doing, his fingernails biting into the flesh of his hand, causing blood to run down his arms. The Creature was dragged into the malicious light, and in a blinding flash, was gone._

_Draco stopped his struggle, dragging in deep breaths of air, forcing the sobs back down inside him._

* * *

And he opened his eyes and stared into the dead eyes of the Lucius Imposter. 

"You killed him." It was an accusation that was darkened by grief. "He was repentant, he could have been saved and you took him. You took him from me. You took my father from me."

"No, Hermione Granger did that. I was just finishing the job." Lucius' mouth quirked up in a half smirk.

"No." Draco whispered. "She didn't. She stopped your havoc from reaching out into the world, he was dead long before she ever reached him. You had his soul and kept it. You ate his Soul."

"I didn't eat it, he gave it willingly for the power I offered in return."

"What are you?" Draco asked at last.

"I am known by many names." The voice of Lucius began to rise in pitch, and Draco shrank even further into himself as the features of Lucius' face began to soften, the nose becoming smaller, and upturned, the eyes becoming larger and darkening to a beautiful sky blue. His face became rounder, and the hand that gripped Draco's face became definitely more feminine, softer. His mouth became fuller, lips plump and shimmering in the half light. "Some may say I am a Demon. One of the seven deadly sins." His hair lengthened, darkening to a strange shade of strawberry blonde. He became shorter in stature, though not much. Draco whimpered as he watched this transformation. Even a Morphmagus had powers like this. "I am known as Lust by the Christians. And as a Succubus by the Pagans. And many other names by many other religions and factions, but eventually, they all bow to me. I am more powerful than you know."

"Why do you want me and my sister?" Draco asked softly, staring at the beautiful girl in front of him with a mixture of horrified wonder, and terrified awe. She was both beautiful and dangerous at the same time.

"I don't want your sister, Draco, it has never been about your sister. It has always been about you. That's why I seduced your father, that's why I worked him and worked on him until I knew he'd drive you away. I couldn't have his greed tainting you. You are perfect. I have been watching you for some time now, Draco, through other lives that you have lived. I watched you grow, learn, change, love, live, die." She stepped back, gazing up at him through her lashes, her smile soft, mysterious, alluring. "I have loved you time and again. You are the one man to whom I bow. You have always been my Master, and I could not let him touch you. Don't you understand that? I am only following your orders."

Draco backed against the wall, staring at her with wide eyes. "You lie. You are nothing more than a Deciever!"

"Why would I lie to you? Don't you understand that you are everything that is in and about me. I have lived and breathed you for so long. This will be the life in which we can live together. Melody is nothing. She is a weight upon your soul that you do not need."

"You are a Creature of the Void." Draco hissed, stumbling away from her, dragging his eyes from hers in an attempt to regain some sort of composure. "Is this the whispering you accused my father of falling victim to?"

"No, I just gave him the power he so desperately craved. He was a depraved madman. He didn't love you Draco, he wanted you to follow in his footsteps. He defiled a child, a little girl, not much older than Melody herself."

"No, you lie! He was a good man until you touched him!"

"No, he wasn't." She reassured him, "He was nothing but pure evil, but he was the kind of evil that hid behind others. A coward." She lifted her hand, brushing a loose strand of hair behind his ear. "Do you not remember me?" She sounded a little hurt, and more than a little disappointed. "How can you not remember me? It's me, your love. Draco, think back, don't you remember me? Lilith, the damned."

Screaming and clutching at his skull with both hands, Draco hit his knees.

* * *

**A/N:** _For all of you who do not know, Lilith, according to folklore, is known as the first wife of Adam, before Eve. She was made from dirt, like Adam, and was equal in every way, but left the garden with her son as her husband because she wouldn't become the subservient person that God and Adam both wanted her to be, and she was demonized for it. I'm playing on that a bit, and taking some liberties with it, because I'm sure Christians don't believe in reincarnation, and this is going to deal with reincarnation on several aspects. But, there's the next installment of my loverly fic here. Please RR. You make my day when you do._

_Love,_

_Lil Lizzie._

_AN: 11-29-06 Sorry, I had to repost this chapter because the formatting didn't come out right to begin with...lovely reposting...yayness incarnate!_


	3. The Sins Of The Sister

**DISCLAIMER**: I know, I know, I don't own any of the character, bar Rohan, Caralynn, and the Quads. The rest © JKR.

**_To Hell In A Handbasket We Go_**

**Chapter Three**

_THE SINS OF THE SISTER_

Ron yawned softly, rolling over on his stomach, the rich smell of damp, fresh earth around him made his body relax even further into the blanket he had spread across the earth. It was chillier in England than it was in Africa, but then again, it wasn't as if he had thought it would be any different.

Allowing his eyes to close, he almost missed the shadow creeping along the edge of the grounds. Almost…but not quite.

* * *

Elizabeth gave a loud, very angry, very frustrated growl. "Charles Weasley, I swear to the Gods if you don't come in here and take your daughter, I will be forced to unman you for life!"

There was a sound of pattering feet, a giggle as Charlie quickly entered the once clean kitchen. "Hope Carina!" Elizabeth's voice was soft, full of defeat as she slumped onto the table that was filled now with a meal fit for a king. Only one exception. It was baby food portions.

"She did it again."

"I told you she didn't like the mashed carrots." Charlie rolled his eyes, waving his wand in a careless way, getting rid of the mess, as well as the baby food. "Hope…Hopie, where's daddy's Hope?"

Another giddy little giggle, and pattering footsteps again.

"Invisible too?"

Elizabeth nodded, banging her head against the kitchen table. "I'm the worst mum in the world, ever!" She wailed, beginning to tear up. "Not only can I not feed our daughter, I can't even find her."

"Hope…" Charlie picked up a dishtowel, throwing it in the direction of the giggle. "Gotcha!"

* * *

Ron stepped into the house, looking as if he had seen a ghost. The most beautiful ghost in the world. Clutching the tiny girl to him, he took off down the hallway to Hermione's room. One down, one to go.

* * *

Raya yawned, poking Eric in the shoulder, waking the young boy up so that he could go to bed. Remus was on a nightly round for the Order, policing and looking for the thing that had taken Melody and Draco from their home in London.

"Eric…hun, it's time for bed."

Eric groaned, but smirked at his overly pregnant, and very tired adoptive mother. "Yes mum." He replied indulgently, kissing her cheek and headed up the stairs to his room.

Raya lay her head on the arm of the couch, yawning again. Just a little nap, and everything would be okay.

"Raya?"

That voice was too familiar, too cold for her liking.

"Raya…where are you? Where are you, my pet?"

Standing, Raya turned toward the fire, taking a step back, a curse escaping her mouth. She grabbed at her wand, but the figure just gestured, sending her careening into the wall. Raya shook her head, growling and standing. "Lilith, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

The Quads had come across Lilith when they were younger. Or rather, Raya had come across Lilith. The woman had used her ability to shift forms at will to embody a girl about Raya's age, and inserted herself into the lives of the Quads. How she had found them now, she wasn't sure. But it wasn't something she wanted to find out.

The woman was the pure soul of dark, wild magick, Void Magick in a human form. She had no soul of her own, and she had wanted Raya by her side all those years ago. With a pet elemental, Lilith had thought she would be invincible.

The strawberry blonde smiled beguiling at Raya. "I just figured I'd look up an old friend. It's been a long time, Raya, and you have grown into a beautiful woman." Raya shuddered at the possessive sound in Lilith's voice. How had she known where to find them!

Giving a cry of rage, Raya pulled her magick about her body, the fiery corona giving enough heat to crack and blister the wood. Remus would forgive her later, she was sure. "Lilith, I banish you to the seventh level of hell that you crawled from!" Her voice was filled with such vehemence that Lilith shrank back for a moment, before beginning to laugh.

"Still the hothead, huh Raya?" Lilith smirked, revealing two rows of wicked, sharp looking teeth. Teeth that had left a very nice scar on Raya's shoulder. Teeth that had torn the throat out of Raya's first boyfriend, right in front of Raya's house. Teeth that had gleamed in the darkness when Raya suddenly realized that her new best friend was just using. Raya took a step back, taking a deep breath. "Now, now, we can dispense with the niceties. I've come to get what I'm owed, Raya."

"What you're owed!"

"Yes, Raya. That soul you gave to me when we were 'younger', the soul you pledged to me. I want your soul, and your body, now."

* * *

"But how!" Hermione stared at the battered, bruised Melody that was perched on the end of her bed, sobbing as if everything in her world had just shattered into an illusion.

"I don't know. That's a question that Melody will have to answer."

"You mean?"

"Yeah, Goddess Incarnate. Meet her on the spirit realm."

* * *

Raya backed up against the wall. "You can't hold me to a child's promise. I am an adult now. You can't fool me with your pretty words now. You can't make me do something I don't want to do."

"Are you afraid, pet?" Lilith cocked her head to the side. "I've collected the relics. I just need you to complete the spell, and we will be set. Me as Queen and you as my Princess. Just like I promised all those years ago. I never go back on a promise." Lilith's voice was the consistency of honey, and twice as sweet."

Raya shook her head. "My sisters will kill you if you take me by force."

"Oh, that won't be necessary." Lilith grinned that feral smile of hers. "I have something you want. Or rather, your cousin wants." Gesturing, a boy staggered out of the roaring flames, blood covering his body from head to toe. "See, I've found a new best friend, Raya. But he isn't as fun as you."

"Draco!"

The boy lifted his head, face bruised and battered, eyes wild. "Don't let her keep me." He all but sobbed, collapsing in a heap on the floor.

"How about it, Raya? We give this kiddie back, and you come with me. It'll be our dirty little secret." Lilith smiled again, teeth glinting in the light. "I will give you two days to think about it. Come willingly, and I will not harm him anymore. If I must come and retrieve you, I will kill him, your boy, your child you are with now, and everyone that has ever mattered in your life, even your werewolf lover."

Draco sobbed harder. "Raya, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to tell…Gods help me…I didn't mean to…"

* * *

**AN**: sorry this has been so long in coming. A great many things have happened. Enjoy.

Love,

Liz


	4. A Willing Sacrifice

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own the Potterverse, or related characters. All is © JKR.

**TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET WE GO**

_CHAPTER FOUR_

_**A Willing Sacrifice**_

Raya stared down at her hands, eyes sliding shut against the pale warmth offered by the last vestiges of the green flames. Taking a deep breath, and a shuddering sob, she took a step toward the flames. Her right hand rested on her slightly swollen stomach, and a crystalline tear coursed its way down her pale cheek, coming to linger on the soft line of her jaw. Bowing her head forward, the crystal tear slid down along her jaw line, tracing a path of sadness that glittered in the soft light.

Her heart ached, and she knew that she had to. She had to go to Lilith, for the sake of Draco, even at the risk of herself and her own child. She had created this mess all those years ago; it would be her that rectified it. That was providing that the ever changing moods of the other woman allowed Raya to live that long.

A lock of brown hair shimmered in the growing darkness, and Raya found herself sobbing, gazing through her hair at a moving picture of herself and her sisters, bright shining stars that glanced out at her from the safety of their polished frame. A slight flit in the corner, and Raya narrowed her watery eyes, shaking her head. A young strawberry blonde stood at the edge of the picture, looking lost, and innocent.

Raya didn't remember her being there when the picture was taken. Frowning, her tears slowing to a trickle, she wiped at her eyes, moving to the mantle to pick up the picture frame, gazing deep into it, golden eyes searching.

The strawberry blonde looked away from Raya as soon as she grabbed the frame, but the look on her own young face was sick and pained. Staring down at herself, Raya gasped as her picture self mouthed "Help me."

Dropping the picture frame, she stumbled away from the picture, but not before the flash of green eyes darkened with a look of hunger held hers.

* * *

_"Melody?"_

_"Hermione." The answer was a feeling, more than a sound. A press of intuition that let Hermione know that she'd found the tiny clairvoyant. Opening her eyes to the dark vastness that was the ethereal plane, she stared around her, searching for the light that would allow her to know that Melody was hiding in amongst all this darkness._

_A flicker of movement at the corner of her eye caused her to turn._

_"Hermione." The mind-voice was raspy, dark, and not at all like the light voice of Melody Malfoy. "Hermione…"_

_Moving back, Hermione's eyes searched the darkness for the source of that voice, that press of cloying wetness that smothered everything around her. Stepping back again, she shook her head as a figure detached itself from the darkness. A figure that was familiar, yet twisted, misshapen. A figure that Hermione knew all too well._

_"Lucius?" Her voice betrayed her anxiety at meeting the errant Malfoy King here in the place that she knew like the back of her own hand, a place she had trained in, had felt safe and confident in, until this moment._

_The figure shuffled to her, and the smell of rotting flesh and cloying sickly-sweet of dark magick made her gag. Backing away, she gave a small cry when she realized that she was trapped. Breathing quickly, sharply, she tried to escape._

_"Hermione…" It stopped a hands breadth from her, a twisted, dark claw catching her out-thrown hand, pulling her toward it._

_Screaming, Hermione lashed out, her magick bright against the darkness, illuminating the Lucius-creature that had her pinned. Grey eyes stared out from a face that was twisted with pain, grey eyes that held her as pinned as his hand did. She gagged again, a look of disgust softening to pity as the eyes filled with tears._

_"Save him, and her. Please. For me, for all of us. For Melody." And then he was gone, as if he had never been there. Only the scent of death and decay that had clung to him lingered in the oppressive air._

* * *

Raya brushed the soot off her body, carefully keeping her face turned to the ground, trying to hide the anger that flashed in her bloodshot eyes. Her body stiffened as she heard the shuffling of feet. Feet that had been broken and healed wrong.

"Raya?" The voice was raspy, older, but she would not ever forget that voice. It held the doom of earth in the deep baritone, and a sarcastic edge that could cut deeper than a sharp knife. "Has the errant elemental returned to Our Lady at last?"

Lifting her eyes and keeping her face neutral, Raya replied in a cool tone. "Malachi, how refreshing to gaze upon your lovely features once more."

The man gave a soft smile to Raya, one that spoke of things that were once of nightmares. He was as beautiful as he had been the last time Raya had seen him, when she was made aware that she was just a child and unworthy of his attentions. That had been hard to swallow, when she was younger. He was just a few inches taller than she, tall, dark, and beautiful with a rangy body that shone in the firelight like a statue cut from the most glorious obsidian. Broad shoulders and chest tapered down to a small waist and hips, long, lean muscles moved under his skin like the muscles of a cat prepared to pounce.

But it was his eyes that had always captured her attention. She had never seen anyone with bicolored eyes, golden and green sunbursts that stared out from his ebony face, settled on high cheekbones and framed by dark brows that swept back from a Romanesque nose that flared just a bit too much in the nostril. Full lips wore a smirk that was infamous the world 'round. At least, infamous in the circles that Lilith traveled.

"Oh, Raya, your silvered tongue has ever allowed sweet nothings to fall on my tender ear." He swept back his dark hair, showing an ear that had a slight blush to it, and Raya rolled her eyes. "See, thou hast won my hear through thine divine words, my sweet love!"

"Malachi, knock it off. I've come to see your sister. She has something of mine, and I wish it returned." Raya turned on her heel, only to feel a vice-like grip on her upper arm, spinning her back around.

"I see you've been a busy little girl since we last seen each other, my sweet." Malachi's voice was dark, low, and throaty. His eyes wore a possessive look that made Raya shiver despite herself. "A very busy girl. I never thought you the kind to want children, Raya Trenton. I am rarely wrong."

"I was just a child when you turned me away, Malachi. I've done a lot of growing up since then."

"So I see, Raya, so I see."

* * *

Hermione gasped, clawing at her throat as she rose off the bed, her body burning so bright that Ron hissed and hid his eyes, cursing. Spluttering and coughing, Hermione rolled off the bed, landing on her knees in the middle of the bedroom floor.

A soft moan came from the now-asleep form of Melody, as Hermione scrambled around on the floor, gasping, trying to regain her breath.

"Hermione, are you alright?"

She jerked at Ron's voice, then looked down at her arm, her breath wheezing as she saw a red handprint, there on her skin. A handprint that looked suspiciously like a handprint bruise that Lucius had left on her.

Her voice was panicked as she looked at Ron. "I'm going to faint now. Don't worry." And the world went black.

* * *

**A/N**: huggles the lovely Lord Elrond of Hogwarts ! Hey! How have you been? Thank you for reviewing! More about Liz and Charlie soon, I promise! 


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